The Corruption of Reality: A Unified Theory of Religion, Hypnosis, and Psychopathology [Hardcover]

John F. Schumaker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1995

This ground-breaking volume examines our sometimes strained grasp of reality and sheds new light on three subject areas that continue to fascinate researchers: religion, hypnosis and psychopathology. "The Corruption of Reality" challenges many of the ideas in all three disciplines and paves the way for an exciting, far-reaching and unified theory of conscious and unconscious behaviour. Schumaker argues that, despite their apparent differences, religion, hypnosis, and psychopathology are all expressions of the unique human ability to modify and regulate reality in ways that ultimately serve the individual and society. In turn, these same behaviours can be traced to the brain's remarkable capacity to process information along multiple pathways, thus allowing the person to manipulate reality in strategic directions aimed at improved coping. He includes a historical and cross-cultural analysis showing how reality reconstruction takes place, and outlines the shortcomings of current psychotherapeutic approaches as well as the promising trends toward a spiritualisation of psychotherapy.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Sure to be labeled immoral by some organized-religion enthusiast, balderdash by some ultrarational pragmatist, Schumaker's book makes a case for the essential sameness of religion, hypnosis, and psychopathology. Cogently reasoned, laboriously constructed, its arguments are obviously not for everyone, but they will inspire and animate adherents and opponents alike. Are these three areas of human behavior merely different manifestations of the desire, conscious or unconscious, to bend reality and the perception of it to personal ends? Schumaker deals with reality, sanity, culture, dissociation and suggestion, and the roles and interactions of society and the individual, reducing each to its essence and examining and evaluating it individually and in concert with the others. Citing noted researchers and observers, he demonstrates how humans generally are inclined to construct "insane" realities that distance them from objective but possibly undesirable reality. Furthermore, Schumaker's views and findings on the roles of ritual and perception in our lives and in our views of reality are fascinating. Mike Tribby

Product Details

• Hardcover: 289 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (February 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879759356
• ISBN-13: 978-0879759353
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,153,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Reality Reconstruction Project for Man, June 8, 2006

By 

Herbert L Calhoun "paulocal" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Corruption of Reality: A Unified Theory of Religion, Hypnosis, and Psychopathology (Hardcover)

This paradigm shift in psychological research and thinking (that just happens to update a key element of Freudian psychology) is powerful medicine for both the committed scientist and the layman. It gets five stars each for thoroughness, inventiveness, and the clarity of its exposition.

Building on his equally impressive work in "Wings of Illusion," Schumaker, uses an expanded examination of the process of diassociation, as a way of developing a unified theory of religion, hypnosis and psychopathology. In a research project that can only produce envy in its thoroughness and deft treatment of a very complicated subject, the author has left no stones unturned in bringing his unifying thesis to a resoundingly satisfying and successful climax.

The core thesis of this work is set forth in his "Wings of Illusion" in which the author asserts that as a result of developing greatly amplified intelligence as an evolutionary strategy for dealing with the fear and trauma of often overwhelming disorder and complexity, man began to seek psychological sanctuary in the form of illusion and self-deception.

Following on the heels of Ernest Becker and Otto Rank, Schumaker poses yet again perhaps the most important question for humankind: "On what level of illusion was man meant to live?"

As a way of unraveling this mystery, the author reveals man's primary evolutionary strategy as that of using conscious self-deception to forestall and avoid the unsettling tension-producing aspects of being unable to control and manage disorder.

This purposeful, and strategic use of self-deception - that is, learning to fashion and manage reality to suit our needs (or as the author puts it "this corruption of reality") -- has proven to be a survival enhancing evolutionary move.

The evolutionary process that helped man out of his quandary of being overwhelmed with disorder and complexity came in the form of a capacity for the brain to disassociate itself from itself.

That is to say specifically that the human brain has the capacity to selectively perceive its environment, selectively process information, selectively store memories, selectively disengage from already stored memories, and selectively replace dissociated data with more "user-friendly" data. Put yet another way, the brain can split the mind into distinct but unified submodules.

The primary level of this mind reorganization, for the purpose of reality reconstruction, of course takes place at the level of culture. It is culture that tends to homogenize and normalize people's false conceptions of reality. The reality of the individual is -- to a large extent -- the result of constructions that are fabricated and propagated at the level of culture.

And if culture can be said to be the central bank of this "artificial order creation project," then organized religion is its currency. Only by eliminating competing "real" data from consciousness can the tension between the disorder in reality and the artificial order we create in our heads, be reduced.

Religion, in its attempt to protect us from some of the most perplexing problems of survival -- such as how to deal with unknowns, uncertainty, and most of all death -- does this with a flourish.

Through cultural organization and manipulation, the human brain has evolved in such a way that it is capable of arriving at greater order than it perceives, or that even exists in reality. In distorting reality to create his own artificial order, man lowers dramatically his own criteria and need for accurate reality testing.

In this volume, Schumaker demonstrates beyond a shadow of doubt that through the mechanism of disassociation, religion and psychopathology are different sides of the same reality re-construction project. Hypnosis, another member of the same family of self-deception is used more or less as the experimental control for testing this thesis.

As religion, hypnosis, and psychopathology are explored, in each other's light, it becomes ever more clear that they are part of a single story, namely, the regulation or corruption of reality.

Schumaker's thesis will be unsettling and disturbing to conventional minds -especially religious ones -- but it is one of few trail-blazing undertakings in psychology that ends in a resounding success. Five stars.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our generation's Freud, September 5, 2006

By 

Yahzi (Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Corruption of Reality: A Unified Theory of Religion, Hypnosis, and Psychopathology (Hardcover)

This book is the most important book of the entire 20th century. Like Freud, it will define the next 100 years of psychological thinking. Unlike Freud, it will last beyond that, becuase it is more than visionary, it is also grounded in hard science.

If you ever wanted to understand how educated, rational adults can believe in the stupidist things imaginable, this book explains it.

The only weak point of the book is the final chapter, where Schumaker suggests we create a false religion to safely guide people's evolutionarily inescapable stupidity. This is John's own corruption of reality: thinking that we can actually find a painless solution. But he presents it half-heartedly enough that I think even he understands it will never work.

The only solution is expecting people to grow up and act like adults. Life isn't what you wanted it to be - tough. Deal.

To put it another way: when you think about it long enough, this book explains 9/11, why we are in Iraq, and the current flap over Intelligent Design. That's a heck of an accomplishment for a book written many years ago.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant -- but way ahead of it's time!!!, February 14, 2006

By 

Paul (New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Corruption of Reality: A Unified Theory of Religion, Hypnosis, and Psychopathology (Hardcover)

I predict that it will take another 50 years for this book to be fully digested and appreciated. While the rest of the world is still thinking in linear ways about topics such as religion, trance, and mental illness and even the function of culture, Schumaker is drawing revolutionary connections that shed brand new light on all of these areas of human behaviour. As in his other books -- for example his provocative "Wings of Illusion" --he shows an uncanny ability to juggle concepts and findings from a vast array of disciplines and somehow weaves them together with remarkable clarity into a new model that re-writes our understanding of ourselves. He steps on a few religious toes as he does this, but the pain is well worth it, even for those who embrace strong religious beliefs. Among other things, this book has completely changed the way in which I now understand the dynamics of eating disorders, an area of special interest to me professionally. For me, it provides that theoretical "link" that has been missing from all former models of eating disorders. That is just one of many examples of how Schumaker's "unified" theory will greatly enhance our knowledge -- in 50 years time.